[After receiving and confirming a tip, former Post reporter and Newsmax correspondent Ronald] Kessler’s next move was to e-mail Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post. He outlined his scoop. Brauchli phoned back immediately.

“I gave it to him directly,” Kessler tells The Washingtonian. “He was really excited. I said, ‘You can have the story. Just credit me.’ ”

The Post broke the story the next day and noted in the seventh paragraph that it was “alerted to the investigation” by Kessler.

Kessler, 68, is the chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax, a conservative website. So why slip the tip to the Washington Post?

“Newsmax lets me work with other media,” he says, “and the Post, where I still have a relationship, has greater impact and has become a fair and trustworthy paper under Katharine Weymouth and Marcus Brauchli.

“I have a relationship with the paper,” he adds. “I wouldn’t call it loyalty.”